Meta and Google mobile apps gorge on user data: Study
- ID
- 15383
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 19 Aug 2026, 12:01 AM
- Fetched
- 19 Aug 2026, 6:08 AM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/personal-tech/2026/08/18/meta-and-google-mobile-apps-gorge-on-user-data-study/5289171
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 5.0
- Created
- 19 Aug 2026, 6:11 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
A Surfshark study of 171 iOS apps from five tech giants found Meta apps declare an average of 25 out of 35 possible data types—triple Apple or Microsoft's average of 7-8. Google dominated the top 40 most data-hungry apps with 29 entries, and Amazon Alexa was the most data-hungry non-Meta app at 28 data types. The findings are based on self-reported Apple App Store privacy labels, not independent network observation, and count breadth of data types rather than volume or frequency of collection.
Why it matters
If you ship iOS apps in Malaysia and integrate Meta or Google SDKs, your App Store privacy labels may need to reflect the data those SDKs declare—Meta collects device IDs, product interactions, precise location, and browsing history across its apps, which could affect your own app's privacy disclosure obligations. Use this as a prompt to audit which third-party SDKs are pulling what data types through your app, since Apple's privacy nutrition labels are self-reported and you are responsible for accuracy.
Discussion angle
The study is based on self-reported labels, not actual traffic—so how much should builders trust App Store privacy disclosures as a signal when choosing SDKs, and what's the practical risk of under-declaring data types that a Meta or Google SDK quietly collects through your app?